Sony Admits Xbox One Backlash Was A “Useful Source” For Their Strategy

With all the fuss that gamers kicked up regarding the Xbox One and Microsoft’s always-on and used games DRM policies (prior to it being reversed), we guess it wasn’t a complete surprise to find out that Sony’s own PS4 announcement at E3 seemed to offer what Microsoft wasn’t. For starters Sony poked fun at Microsoft’s used games DRM policy, the always-on requirement, and even the price where the PS4 ended up being priced $100 cheaper. Was this all a reaction to Microsoft’s policies? It would certainly seem that way, and Sony agrees to a certain extent.

In an interview featured in this week’s Famitsu, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida admitted that the backlash Microsoft received from its Xbox One announcement was used by Sony as a “useful source” of what not to do. Unsurprisingly many gamers took to Twitter, tweeting to Yoshida at what Sony shouldn’t do with their PS4 announcement, and it seems that Sony did take some of it to heart. Of course gamers did not actually have the final say, as Yoshida stated that their hardware policies were not based on user feedback solely, but it was something worth taking into consideration.

Of course how each console plays and handles remains to be seen as either has yet to be released, but it’s interesting to see how quickly Sony managed to capitalize on the “misfortune” of Microsoft to their benefit.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Microsoft, PS4, Sony, Xbox One